aishwarya

WOMEN AND MEDIA ASSIGNMENT

PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN TAMIL AND HINDI REALITY SHOWS: A COMPARISON
AISHWARYA.S

[Year]

INTRODUCTION

Most of the Indian television channels are obsessed with different categories of reality shows, like celeb- reality, prank reality, talent hunts, makeovers, Indian Idol, Nach Baliye, MTV Roadies and dating shows. Reality shows has emerged as a new form of amusement for the viewers with a whole new concepts including unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documentary on actual events, and featuring ordinary people instead of professional celebrities. In these shows girls might wear short dresses to expose their body parts to survive in these shows. Judges would behave rudely with participants that some time young participants become sick. These reality shows are meant to search for the talent like acting, singing and dancing; but meanings of these shows have changed, and exposure of womens bodies increases the popularity and number of viewers of these shows which are mostly men Most of the Indian reality shows have a system of voting where general people select the most talented candidate; when it comes the time to select the top candidate, people would end up supporting boys for number one positions. Thus, women in media are being treated as an item or product for their features of beauty, sex and attraction instead of their capabilities of dancing, singing and performance. So, it might be essential to bring forward these factors in front of general people to make them realize the need of change. Women are not only bodies; they are complete human beings with skills to work in any field. If we would not realize this, we would gradually make them just an object to allure the men and make business. A comparative analysis between reality shows in hindi and tamil channels has been done. For this purpose, the following shows have been watched and studied:

TAMIL REALITY SHOWS

MAANADA MAYILAADA, KALAIGNAR T.V. Maanada Mayilada is a dance based reality show in South India. It is owned by Kalaignar TV. Maanada Mayilada is best known for the types of dance shown and the beautiful, unique sets brought by Kala Master. The sets have become a major highlight and are appreciated by the audience. The judges are Kala Master, Brinda Master, Kushboo Sundar, Rambha, Namitha, Simran Bagga, Mumtaj and Sudha Chandran. The hosts are Sanjeev and Keerthi. The director of this show is Dance Master Kala.Currently Season 7 is being aired currently. What keeps youngsters glued to the TV sets is Namitha's seductive costumes. the producer of the show has been paid a whopping amount to keep the actress in the programme for some weeks.

JACKPOT, JAYA TV The very word jackpot, reminds us of stylish Blouses. This is the true fact about jackpot, which is a game show. It has become popular because if the host, actress Khushboo and her revealing blouses, and not because of the concept or the participants. After Khushboo, it was Nadiya who was hosting the show but didnt receive so much popularity as Khushboo. Now it is Simran who is the host. Why is it that only women have to host this show? The only reason being that their looks, sarees and blouses, accessories receive the maximum attention from both men and women, The questions asked in the show and the rounds are not so interesting, even then people watch it.

HINDI REALITY SHOWS

NACH BALIYE Nach Baliye is a dance, reality-television series on the Indian STAR Plus channel. The contestants are couples who are television stars. Celebrity couples compete against one another. Major names in the television industry were given a platform to showcase another side of their persona. The first and second season was aired on Star One and then shifted to Star Plus It promotes celebrities with their life partners, and trains them with the professional choreographers. The judges give points on the quality of the performances. However, the final score combines the audience vote along with points. Sometimes the judges give harsh comments on an awful performance, and mainly the female contestant is blamed for the expression, coordination, chemistry, looks, and body language. For instance, in this season one participant named Reshmi Ghosh has a serious injury in her leg so she cannot wear heels. Even though this fact is known by all, one of the female judges Farah Khan scolded her so badly in front of everyone for not wearing heels.

BIG BOSS Bigg Boss is a reality TV programme broadcast in India. It follows the Big Brother format Bigg Boss is a reality show where celebrity contestants stay in a single house for about three months, with no connection to the outside world. They are overseen by a mysterious person known as 'Bigg Boss', whose only presence in the house is through his voice.[1] A Bigg Boss House is built for every season. The house was earlier located in the tourist place of Lonavala, Pune district of Maharashtra, however the house for the fifth season is located in Karjat. The house is well-furnished and decorated. It has all kinds of modern amenities, but just one or two bedrooms and four toilet bath rooms. There is a garden, pool, activity area and gym in

the House. There is also a Confession Room, where the housemates may be called in by Bigg Boss for any kind of conversation, and for the nomination process.[2] The House has no TV connection, no phones, no Internet connection, clocks, pen or paper.[1] While all the rules have never been told to the audience, the most prominent ones are clearly seen. The inmates are not permitted to talk in any other language than Hindi. They are not supposed to tamper with any of the electronic equipment or any other thing in the House. They cannot leave the House premises at any time except when permitted to. They cannot discuss the nomination process with anyone. Every week, each contestant is called into the 'Confession Room' by Bigg Boss, and are asked to nominate two of the other contestants. Bigg Boss selects two, and sometimes three (though the number goes higher at times) people with the highest votes, who are put up for a public vote via phone and text message. The one with the least votes is evicted on Friday. Occasionally, more than one person may be evicted at a time, like in the final episode Sometimes, the housemates may be nominated for other reasons, such as nomination by a person who has achieved special privileges (via tasks or other things), for breaking rules or something else. If something is very serious, a contestant may be evicted directly Season 5 of the popular reality show, co-hosted by Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan, is most notable for its sparse male presence. The sparring ladies, however, are providing enough entertainment and oomph to complain. In this season, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, a transgender was casted, which raised the acceptability level in the society and only after the show, she was accepted by her family, changing the national perception about this particular community. Despite Rakhi Sawant, a man became Bigg Boss. Judges are overwhelmingly men. Arent women good judges of talent??

INDIAN IDOL

Indian Idol, a musical talent show, promotes the talent of the youth through music. This show gives an opportunity to the winner to release a solo album with a famous music company. It is an adaptation of the Pop Idol format. It started airing in India with the First Season in 20042005.5 successful seasons of Indian Idol have taken place till now and really very deserving people have won the titles. The prominent names include Abhijeet Sawant, Prashant Tamang, Sandeep Acharya, Saurabhee Debbarma and Sreeram Chandra. After selecting fourteen participants by the judges, the public decides the winner by voting. This year is the fourth season of Indian Idol, and up to now no girl has reached to the first three positions even. Four girls have been eliminated in this season, whereas no boy has been under bottom two participants. In one result episode on 26th December, the female judge Sonali Bendre has walked out from the show and declared all women in black to make a protest against the elimination of girls.

Moreover, the winner of the Indian Idol title for the past 4 years has been boys, How come no woman came close to becoming Indian Idol? Is there a dearth of women who can sing well

EMOTIONAL ATYACHAR Emotional Atyachar is a reality show in which a person, who doubts his /her boyfriends /girlfriends loyalty, can ask for a loyalty test on him/her. The person checking his/her partner's loyalty is referred to as the lead, while the person on whom the loyalty test is being performed is called the suspect. The crew members follow him/her and also ask another boy/girl to act as if he/she is intimate with him/her. These are caught on camera and shown to the lead.

It is aired on UTV Bindass, examines the presence of fidelity in affine relationships. A person (referred to as lead) gives the information about a suspected cheater. The suspected cheater is the targeted by the crew of the show emotional atyachar. The sting operation is carried out for a period of three consecutive days. The suspect is usually introduced to a good looking

undercover agent. The agent is only directed to be friendly with the suspect. After monitoring the conduct of the suspect, the footage of the hidden cameras is shown to the lead or his girl-friend/ boy friend. The scenes telecast in the serial outrage the modesty of women. The show also portrays women agents in a nasty manner, getting down and dirty with prospective cheats

ANALYSIS
In the hindi channels, the reality shows are more popular and more in number. Their prominence is widespread across the north. Whereas in the south the number of reality shows are few in number. Soap operas are more prevalent here. Even the genres of reality shows are quite distinct in hindi. In hindi channels, the genres include, dance, drama, comedy, music, romance, adventure and sports. For example, the Great Indian Laughter Challenge, MTV Roadies, Emotional Atyachar are reality shows that belong to these different genres. However in Tamil channels, the reality shows dont involve romance and adventure much, It is mostly music, dance or any game shows.

The level of vulgarity is relatively lesser in the tamil reality shows. It is more decent, whereas in Hindi shows such as Big boss, there is a nasty usage of swear words and filthy language, by both men and women.

Most of the dance shows both in tamil and hindi shows have a major vulgarity element in the form of very skimpy clothes and indecent steps are choreographed where the dance partners have to be in close contact. For example, in the dance show, Maanada Mayilada, the judges appreciate only those couples who have been in close contact and danced with steps like carrying the woman etc. Only then they say that the dancers have had good chemistry. So the women have to forego a lot to receive applause from the audience and judges and survive in the competition.

 In comedy shows in hindi such as the Great Indian Laughter Challenge, most often jokes are targeted at women, and it is about women told by men which becomes a laugh riot for the entire audience, which is very unfair. In the south there hasnt been any such instance.

In the south there are no shows like MTV Roadies or Emotional Atyachar where they portray women in the most menial manner. Such shows also show men and women as living together, which is against our value systems. The Tamil reality shows are little concerned about these factors since such shows might not gain popularity among the South Indian audience who still hold on to certain conservative values.

CONCLUSION
It could be that women in reality shows are predominantly portrayed for their appealing bodies. Their costumes, body language and way of talking are to captivate the attention of judges, audience and viewers. The public and media do not like the girls who are decent and do not look attractive and sexy. Superficially these shows would search for the talent, but under the surface they would only get higher TRPs by using the beauty of young girls. Even though public like these girls but they do not vote for a girl who is even more talented than a boy. However, the portrayal of women is slightly better in the Tamil shows when compared to the Hindi shows.